Traffic Is Not An Excuse- Ruto To CSs Who Arrived Late To State House Meeting

President William Ruto on Tuesday, August 1 read the riot act to members of the Executive who arrived late to the performance contracts signing event at State House, Nairobi.

The Head of State hosted the signing of performance contracts ceremony at State House which brought together all Cabinet secretaries, principal secretaries, heads of parastatals and other senior government officials.

"I don't know whether it is this performance contracts that have been going on for 20 years that many people maybe mistakenly think that it is a ritual and that is why people resort to the old incompetent excuses that there was traffic for them not to be in the most important public function.

"We have a job because we have a contract, if you cannot keep time with your employer you have basically dismissed yourself, it is just as simple as that," he reprimanded.

Addressing the latecomers, who reports revealed as Interior CS Kithure Kindiki and Trade CS Moses Kuria, the President demanded that they provide a written explanation as to why they were late, and not use traffic as an excuse.

"For those who came late and are members of the Executive, I will be expecting a written explanation and it should not include matters of traffic on why they did not take these performance contracts seriously because if you don't take them seriously it means that we don't take the contract with the people of Kenya on performance seriously and that can be a very serious indictment on anybody," he went on.

The President's sentiments were echoed by Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua who noted that some of the Cabinet members were taking advantage of punctuality and foreign travels to the extent that they were disrespectfully not obeying presidential orders, using the closeness to the President as a smoke screen.

"This is a sad day. I don't understand why a Cabinet Secretary would arrive late for a function that is being presided over by the Head of State.

"What we have witnessed today must come to an end. It does not matter whether the President was your friend during political campaigns," Gachagua warned.

The Deputy President went on to sound the alarm, revealing that the President previously got angry when he could not hold a Cabinet meeting due to absenteeism by more than seven CSs.

"You do not have to honour every invitation to travel out of the country. You have yourselves to blame because you forced the President to place a cap on your foreign travels.

"Some Cabinet Secretaries even change clothes at the airport from where they immediately hop on another flight to travel to another country. Ladies and Gentlemen, we can't work like that," he went on.

President Ruto reiterated that all government officials are obligated to fulfil the terms included in their contracts and failure to do so will lead to termination, whipping the senior government officials to complete stalled projects, increase productivity, and deliver the campaign pledges in line with the bottom-up economic transformation.